Austerity has twin histories of intellectual pedigree and empirical record

Evidence

Hard work and economy— as in budget cuts and individual abstinence— were the guiding principles that formed the essence of austerity as a response to crisis. In themselves these were not much of a novelty; they had been an integral part of the conceptual toolbox of the renowned classical economists Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Th omas Robert Malthus for at least a century. What was new in the early twentieth century was that the general public had seen the fault in such narratives. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 718 (#expands, via linked claim)

When world leaders keen to legitimize the damage that they have already done to the lives of millions of their fellow citizens reach for examples such as these to vindicate their actions, applauding these countries for creating misery, it shows us one thing above all. Austerity remains an ideology immune to facts and basic empirical refutation. This is why it remains, despite any and all evidence we can muster against it, a very dangerous idea. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 613 (#expands, via linked claim)

As we shall see, its intellectual history is both short and indirect. Austerity is not a well worked-out body of ideas and doctrine, an integral part of economic, or any other, theory. Rather, it is derivative of a wider set of beliefs about the appropriate role of the state in the economy that lie scattered around classical and contemporary economic theory. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 66 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Austerity persists as an ideology that resists empirical refutation — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 613; Austerity’s core principles predate the twentieth century by a century of classical economics — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 718; Austerity is not a coherent doctrine but derivative of scattered state-role beliefs — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 66 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Austerity’s core principles predate the twentieth century by a century of classical economics #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 718
• Austerity persists as an ideology that resists empirical refutation #expands (0.82) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 613
• Austerity is not a coherent doctrine but derivative of scattered state-role beliefs #complicates (0.78) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 66
• Broader neoliberal shifts enabled austerity’s return to economic common sense #expands (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 406
• Austerity was historically contingent, not inevitable #qualifies (0.73) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 621
• Austerity operates as speculation that converts fiction into fact #qualifies (0.72) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 400
• Interwar experts sold austerity as objective science concealing true economic facts from the people #expands (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 744